Life after Coronavirus: We Must Not Be Cheated and Exploited Again

After The Coronavirus Passes, We Must Resist the Call To Go Back To ‘Normal’

An illustration of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) from the US Centers for

Disease Control and Prevention. Photo: AP Via The Guardian

Before the pandemic began, the systems that govern our world were broken and brutal. We were cheated. We, the people, mother nature and our sacred earth, were abused and exploited to make loads of money for the few. That world was emotionally and spiritually disconnected, dehumanised, devalued. Mammon was ruling the world and humanity in decline.

When we emerge, the world will be different, so must we be.

Out of the coronavirus crisis, a new kinder and better world must be born

The time is now to rediscover our humanity and our solidarity

The age of disconnection is over: We now need a different story, a different narrative. Gone are the days we were told, arrogantly, that there is no alternative. What we had was not normal. What we had was abnormal, abdication of our humanity, responsibility and solidarity.

Lest We Forget

We will not go back to normal

Normal never was. Our pre-corona existence was not normal other than we normalised lying, cheating, dishonesty, greed, inequality, poverty, homelessness, rat race, exhaustion, mental illness, depletion, extraction, disconnection, confusion, rage, hoarding, hate, abuse of our mother nature and our sacred earth. Thus, we should not long to return to ‘Normal’. We are being given the opportunity to stitch a new tapestry of life. One that fits all of humanity and nature.

‘We have been living in a bubble, a bubble of false comfort and denial. In the rich nations, we have begun to believe we have transcended the material world. The wealth we’ve accumulated – often at the expense of others – has shielded us from reality. Living behind screens, passing between capsules – our houses, cars, offices and shopping malls – we persuaded ourselves that contingency had retreated, that we had reached the point all civilisations seek: insulation from natural hazards.

Now the membrane has ruptured, and we find ourselves naked and outraged, as the biology we appeared to have banished storms through our lives. The temptation, when this pandemic has passed, will be to find another bubble. We cannot afford to succumb to it. From now on, we should expose our minds to the painful realities we have denied for too long.’...George Monbiot, The Guardian, 25 March 2020

Times of upheaval are always times of radical change. Some believe the pandemic is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to remake society and build a better, kinder future. Others fear it may only make existing injustices worse.

My natural home is optimism, thus, I belong to the former group.

And if, you, like me, don’t want us to be cheated and exploited again, then, join me by supporting the GCGI’s Ten Step Call for Action.

The time is now to rediscover our true selves

‘Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.’-Aristotle

More than an arrangement of atoms … a detail from Van Gogh’s The Starry Night.

Photo: Heritage Images/Getty Images, Via The Guardian

Unless we can reclaim our commitment to one another, we are not adhering to our humanity.

Beyond the Neoliberal, Thatcherite Wasteland: Ten Common Good Steps to Build a Compassionate and Kinder World